The global pandemic has changed the buying behavior of the world. People now prefer to buy and order products and goods—practically, everything online. Because of this consumer preference, Google searches have increased rapidly.
This scenario makes SEO for small businesses a must because ignoring it will give an advantage to your competition. Consider affordable SEO packages for small businesses as a worthwhile investment and not just an expense.
Key Benefits of SEO help for a Small Business
Search engine optimization is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines. It is performed because a website will receive more visitors from a search engine when it ranks higher on the search engine results page (SERP). These visitors can then potentially be converted into customers.
Local SEO is a great tool for a small business because you are practically just competing with other businesses in the same location. The better visibility you have on a search engine results page, the more likely that someone will click and convert.
The key benefits of using SEO plans for your small business according to Forbes are:
- It is a technique that is low-cost with high ROI as long as it is done properly, strategically, and effectively.
- Without paying a cent, you can get free traffic, leads, and customers for your small business.
- You get high-quality traffic from SEO traffic.
- It can help you build a trusted brand and help customers build loyalty to your brand as well.
- SEO is the future of marketing
- SEO for your small business is a great way to win over your competition.
What You Should Focus on Small Business SEO to Improve Your Rankings
It may not be a rapid change, but these things that you should focus on in small business SEO can start to move your needle for better results. Use this checklist of what to address and the tools you can use to help you prioritize your SEO tasks.
1. Identify specific ways your small business solves the problems of your customers
Understand the nature of what your small business offers to fill the specific needs of customers. What drives them to use or purchase your product? How, when, and where do they need your product?
These questions will help you determine the perfect keywords you will use in your content, and help you complete other SEO tasks.
2. Make sure you have a solid website structure
Spend time on fixing common technical SEO problems on your website to make its website structure solid. This will make search engines properly crawl and index your web page. Common problems often include:
- Speed
- Duplicate content
- Broken links
- Improper use of canonical link elements
- Unoptimized pages
Tools you can use in addressing technical SEO issues include:
- GT Metrix
- Google Search Console
- Siteliner
- Screaming Frog
- SEMRush
3. Improve your on-page optimization
Develop quality content that is properly structured using targeted keywords naturally in your content including optimizing titles, meta descriptions, and body content. This will trigger important ranking signals.
Some tools that you can use for optimizing your pages are:
- SEMRush
- SpyFu
- Google Search Console
- Keywords Everywhere
4. Make sure your website is professional and mobile-friendly
A considerable number of your users will be browsing and searching using their mobile devices. In fact, it was found out in April 2020 that 63 percent of Google’s US organic search traffic originated from mobile devices. Add to the fact that handheld devices are more likely used to conduct local searches.
Here are tips on how you can make your website click-worthy and SEO-friendly:
- Use your appealing business logo and branding on your website.
- It should load quickly—less than three seconds.
- Your website should be well-structured and easy to use.
5. Use Schema Markup
Schema is a structured data vocabulary that defines entities, actions, and relationships on the internet. It makes it easier for search engines to parse and interpret the information on your web pages.
With structured data, you can rank higher in Google because Google better understands your webpage because of how Schema sends signals about your page components like your business name, address, phone number, ratings, and business hours.
You can also get the advantage of other features of search engine results pages like featured snippets, knowledge graphs, and others. Use the Google Structured Data Testing Tool for your schema markup.
More Ways to Help Your Rank Through Small Business SEO
There are more ways than one to increase your web traffic and generate leads along the way through small business SEO. SEO is a long-term process to help you achieve your business by improving your rankings. It’s a good way to start with as you work on getting a better website performance to receive more visitors that can convert into customers for your small business.